The Silence
The Silence was a religious order who considered themselves the “Sentinels of History”. They tried to kill the Doctor because of a specific prophecy, which stated: “On the fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a Question will be asked, a question that must never, ever be answered.” This question was “The First Question, the oldest question in the Universe, that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight.” Dorium Maldovar told the Eleventh Doctor that the question was: “Doctor Who?”, which was a question the Doctor had been apparently running from his entire life. HISTORY ' The Silence allied with Madame Kovarian, the Church and the Order of the Headless. They were behind the Battle of Demon's Run and the kidnapping and brainwashing of the infant River Song, then known as Melody Pond. She later made several attempts on the Eleventh Doctor's life. Ultimately, she kissed him with poisoned lipstick. She later broke free of her conditioning and offered him the total of her regenerative energy, saving him. The alien leaders of the Silence were encountered by the Doctor in 1969 America. The Silence had been on Earth since humanity's beginning, secretly manipulating humanity and its development for their own ends. It was implied they were responsible for the Moon landing because they needed a special spacesuit for Melody Pond. The Silence's occupation of Earth was broken when the Doctor issued a post-hypnotic command via the Apollo 11 footage to the entire human race, instructing them to kill the Silents on sight. The Silence tracked down River Song to the Luna University, where they kidnapped her and forced her into an astronaut suit as part of their plan to kill the Doctor. One Silent was present near Lake Silencio in Utah to observe the Doctor, River, Amy and Rory during the events of the Doctor's death. Their plan was foiled when the Doctor convinced the crew of the Teselecta to disguise their ship as him and take his place, tricking the Silence into believing they had killed the Doctor at a fixed point in time. The fixed point was rather, the Teselecta's destruction and the deception itself. '''ORGANISATION ' The Silence was led by a race of aliens who would be erased from your memory after you looked away from them (known as Silents) who used post-hypnotic suggestion to manipulate other species into doing their bidding. The Silents also employed human or humanoid agents to carry out specific tasks. These agents were often fitted with Eye Drives which allowed them to remember the Silents. The Silents''' were a "memory-proof" alien species who led a religious order known as the Silence. They seemed to be willing to do anything to kill the Doctor before he could answer the Question, including murder and kidnapping. The Silents were tall humanoids, around seven feet tall, with bulbous heads and grey, mouthless faces. Their hands had four large, spatulate fingers. They had small eyes in deep recesses in the skull. Their eyes lacked sclera and were completely dark. They spoke in deep, raspy voices and made growling or clicking noises. They wore black suits and ties in the style of 20th century male government workers on Earth. Silents remained hidden on Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, since the early Stone Age. They were uniquely "memory-proof"; anyone who saw them would instantly forget about them the moment they looked away - even if they saw a photograph of a Silent. Anyone looking at the Silents would recover their memories of previous sightings. Although any lifeform would forget the Silents when they weren't looking at them it was still possible to hear them, and people who knew they existed could listen for them in order to sense when they were nearby. This was shown when River Song shot down a Silent without even looking at it.The Silents were also impervious to at least some types of scanning devices, as River Song's bio scanner did not detect them in the underground tunnels. The Silents influenced the actions of others by issuing commands to anyone looking at them. These orders would remain in a person's mind after they had forgotten the encounter with the Silent, acting like post-hypnotic suggestions. Any instruction spoken while a subject looked at a Silent, even a picture of one, would cause this effect. "Repeated memory wipes fry your head eventually", which was the case for Dr Renfrew, whom the Silence used to keep Graystark Hall Orphanage open beyond its closing day. The Silents employed human or humanoid operatives who wore eye drives, devices worn over the eye that artificially recorded information and fed it directly into the brain, allowing those wearing them to remember the aliens after looking away.The Doctor and his companions put marks on their skin so that they knew they'd had an encounter with something dangerous, even if they couldn't remember what it was. After marking themselves so many times, the Doctor was able to figure out why they were doing it, realising that they were fighting a memory proof enemy. Silents could also absorb electricity, even the smallest amount of static electricity from the air into their bodies, increase the voltage a hundred-fold and fire it from their hands. These energy discharges could obliterate victims. When absorbing and discharging energy, a hole would appear on the Silent's face, under the skin, where a mouth would be. The Silents were very strong, able to shatter reinforced glass by pushing on it. They could smash through barricaded doors with ease. One Silent took two direct hits from a handgun at point-blank range and survived, though it was unable to walk. However, Silents could be killed by enough gunfire; in an alternate timeline, Amy Pond killed three with a machine gun. They could also be killed by a single, direct hit from an energy weapon such as River Song's Alpha Meson blaster. They could hang upside down from ceilings and lie in waiting, much like bats. The Doctor called them parasites; they were unable to develop any science or technology on their own. Instead they relied on other species. The Silents had been on Earth for thousands of years, since the time the wheel and fire were developed, unnoticed by the human race. They used post-hypnotic suggestion to make humans do their bidding in such things as going to the Moon. In 1561, Silents took notice of a time storm and the arrival of River Song and the Doctor. They managed to separate them across time, sending the Doctor two centuries into the future. Around this time, they were experimenting with Stasis Field technology. They were harnessing the temporal energy to further their endevours, but River stole their generator. The Doctor and River arrived later to steal a Silence Time Capsule to break through the Daleks' Time Lock. The Silents used a piece of the Eternity Clock to change fixed points in time. The Silents were defeated by River Song and the Doctor stole the Time Capsule. Silents appeared in London 1605, while Amy, Rory and the Doctor solved the mystery that involved the Rutan Host and the gunpowder plot. At least one Silent was in the Houses of Parliament when it was in orbit. It was seen by Rory Williams whilst he was fixing an EMP generator. A Silent was in the White House in 1969 and killed a woman named Joy in front of Amy Pond before delivering a post-hypnotic suggestion for her to "tell the Doctor what he must know, and what he must never know". Before July in 1969, a great number of Silents had taken up residence at a disused orphanage where the little girl was held. They used post-hypnotic suggestions to make the director believe the orphanage was still in operation. They showed great interest in the little girl, putting her in a life support "astronaut" suit to keep her healthy and safe - even equipping the suit with a built-in weapons system. The Silents kidnapped Amy when she was investigating the orphanage with Canton. They took her to their underground lair and cryptically told her that she would help "bring the Silence." The Doctor inflicted a crushing defeat on the Silents when he ensured that humanity saw footage of a wounded Silent they held captive spliced into the footage of the Moon landing broadcast. In it, the Silent said "You should kill us all on sight"; it had said this to Canton Delaware, sneering at human mercy while he tried to help heal it after it had been shot. This footage was immediately viewed by half a billion humans, It would be seen every time anyone saw the Apollo 11 landing, one of the most famous and frequently viewed film sequences in the history of humanity. Without enough time to implant more post-hypnotic suggestions when humans looked at them, the remainder of the Silents on Earth in 1969 seemed doomed, although at least one did survive to 2011. A single Silent spied on the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River in 2011 Utah. Amy noticed it before she was distracted. Two Silents witnessed Madame Kovarian kidnap River Song from the Luna University and force her into an astronaut suit as part of Kovarian's plan to kill the Doctor. When River asked Kovarian what they were, Kovarian replied, "your owners." In the Area 52 Pyramid in an alternate timeline, over a hundred Silents were "captured" by Amy Pond's troops and placed in specimen tanks filled with water to prevent them from drawing electricity. This turned out to be a trap to get to the Doctor. The Silents easily broke out and killed the guards. Three Silents tried to kill Rory, but were gunned down by Amy. Military The Papal Mainframe was an ecclesiastical leader on whose authority Colonel Manton lowered the hoods on headless monks — an act that was otherwise a level 1 heresy. At the time Manton took the action at Demons Run, the Mainframe was either actually female or commonly referred to with a feminine pronoun. The Church '''was a religious and military organisation in the 51st and 52nd centuries. It was responsible for interstellar security, protection of human populations and special covert operations. Ranks in the Church included Bishop, Cleric, Verger, and Colonel. The organisation itself was sometimes just called "the Clerics". Members were organised into different faith/regiments, including the Anglican Marines. The Papal Mainframe has been said to be the Headless Monks' and the Church's governor in separate sources. Planets that were "Heaven-neutral", like the Gamma Forest, fell outside the Church's jurisdiction. The Eleventh Doctor suggested that the Church was an evolution of the churches of Earth. In the 51st century, the Church recruited River Song for a covert mission in which she infiltrated the Galaxy class Starliner Byzantium, which contained a Weeping Angel. She called in the Eleventh Doctor, who rescued her and accompanied her to Alfava Metraxis, where the Byzantium had crashed. There they met with Octavian's unit. Octavian led his men into the Maze of the Dead below the Byzantium. Clerics Christian, Angelo and Bob were soon killed by the Angels. The Doctor assured him they could not have been saved, but Octavian told him that he would be the one to tell their families while the Doctor flew off in his blue box. Nonetheless, he still told the Doctor he had faith in him when they were surrounded by Angels. A crack in space-time was discovered in the forest of the Byzantium. The Doctor, Amy and River survived and sent the Weeping Angels falling into the crack, erasing them from space and time. Octavian was killed by a Weeping Angel and the remainder of the Clerics were erased by the crack. Since the Doctor later negated the cracks, the fates of the Clerics and the circumstances of the Angels' defeat is unclear. The Church battled Lava Snakes. In the 52nd century, a Church regiment and the Headless Monks were working together as part of the Silence's operation to capture the infant Melody Pond to use as a weapon against the Doctor; at this time the Church considered him a threat to humanity, presumably through the Silence's post-hypnotic suggestions. The Eleventh Doctor neutralised the entire force at their Demon's Run base without personally killing anyone (though he tricked the Clerics and the Headless Monks into shooting each other). However, the defeat of the Church was part of the Silence's trap. The Clerics later helped the Silence capture River Song and place her in the astronaut suit. The '''Order of the Headless, also known as the Headless Monks, were a religious order who believed in listening to their hearts rather than their minds, to the point of having themselves beheaded. As they were headless, the Headless Monks did not register as living beings. They were also supposedly incapable of being fooled or feeling fear. Despite their lack of heads, the Monks were able to detect where other beings were. They could fire energy blasts from their hands, as well as channelling that energy into the swords they carried. They could be killed just as easily as most other humanoids, with energy blasts, guns, or sword wounds. They also had some form of vocal ability, as they could chant, though this may have been a psychic ability. The Headless Monks were very religious. They believed in listening to their hearts rather than their minds, so they beheaded themselves and placed their heads inside an unnamed, box-like device. If another group allied with the monks, they were expected to provide at least one of their members to join the monks. It was a Level One Heresy, punishable by death, to attempt to lower the hood of a Headless Monk. The group followed an entity known as the Papal Mainframe. Although the monks considered it a heresy to reveal their headless state to outsiders, they were apparently able to do so under the orders of the Mainframe. The Monks would perform an attack chant before certain fights. Not all inductees to the Order of the Headless had their heads kept in boxes. The boxes were apparently reserved for the very wealthy, while the rest of the monks' heads were left on shelves in a cave full of skulls called the Seventh Transept to rot. Despite this, the skulls were still 'alive' in a sense, capable of moving about and attacking others. The heads kept in ceremonial boxes were even better preserved: Dorium Maldovar was still very active and in full possession of his memories and personality when visited by the Eleventh Doctor. The Order of the Headless joined an alliance presumably led by the Silence, along with the Anglican Regiment of The Church and Madame Kovarian, dedicated to the defeat of the Doctor - it is likely that the Silence used their post-hypnotic suggestive abilities to convince these parties that the Doctor was their enemy. Some time after Amy Pond's honeymoon, after her child was conceived, she was captured and replaced by a Ganger perfectly synced to the real Amy so that neither the Eleventh Doctor nor Rory Williams, Amy's husband, would notice. As far as Amy knew, she was continuing her adventures with the Doctor and Rory. In reality, Amy's pregnant body was taken to Demon's Run in the 52nd century. The Headless Monks went to great effort to contain her and her unborn child. They paid Dorium Maldovar for delivering them the brain of a Judoon trooper which contained security software they needed. In accordance with the Headless Monks' alliance protocol, one Cleric was to be initiated into their religion. Later, during a speech by Colonel Manton, he was allowed to unveil the monks to reveal knots of skin where the bases of their necks should be: the Cleric had been unaware that this would happen to him. The Doctor revealed himself to be disguised as a Monk, in order to panic the Clerics into attacking them. The Monks began to kill the marines in retaliation until Manton told everyone to cease fire, at which point they were surrounded by the Doctor's own forces, an army of Silurians and Judoon led by Sontaran Commander Strax. The Doctor believed he'd captured and driven off the entire force - however, he was unaware the Headless Monks did not register as alive and that they'd kept most of their number hidden, as part of a trap. They massacred most of the Silurians before they were even noticed and took out the Doctor's allies Strax, Lorna Bucket, and Dorium (the last converted into a Headless) before they were killed. The Eleventh Doctor later discovered that the Headless Monks stored the heads of their followers in the catacombs under their temple, in the Seventh Transept. Despite having no bodies and the flesh around their skulls having rotted away, the skulls were still alive, albeit bestial in nature; they would attempt to eat anything that wandered into the catacombs, including rats and people. Gantok took the Doctor here to meet the severed head of Dorium Maldovar. Dorium's head turned out to be fully alive and still sentient, a privilege affordable only by the wealthy. In 171st century, the Delirium Archive was said to be the final resting place of the Headless Monks. Technology The Eye Drive was a device used by the Silence to allow selected individuals, such as Madame Kovarian, to remember the memory-proof Silents running the order. An Eye Drive looked like an eye patch and was worn over the eye. The device formed a neural link with the wearer's mind and continually reminded them of the existence of the Silents. The Silence built a fail-safe into the devices that caused pain or death when activated, depending on the individual. This fail-safe was integral to the functioning of the device; any duplicate included it. Madame Kovarian was always seen wearing this device. Until the events of Area 52, the function of the device was unknown. After examining Madame Kovarian's eye-drive in an alternate time line, Amy Pond and her army created their own versions. These were worn by all of them, including the Eleventh Doctor. Kovarian's drive seemed to be a colour slightly different from the duplicates, most probably because hers was made by the Silence, not Amy Pond's "army". Unfortunately, the soldiers were unaware of the built-in fail safe in the design. When the Silents broke out of confinement, they triggered the fail safes, killing many of the soldiers. So far this is the only method to be continually aware of the Silence. The flat at 79B Aickman Road was in reality a''' timeship '''belonging to the Silence. It had come to Earth before 2010. From outside, 79B was somewhat like an inverted, curved pyramid, with four legs/landing struts. It had a perception filter to blend in with its surroundings and convince anyone who looked upon it that it had always been there. When it took on the appearance of the non-existent upper floor of 79B Aickman Road, even Craig Owens, who lived in the house, accepted the reality of a second storey. The Eleventh Doctor, after first seeing the ship, called it "someone's attempt to build a TARDIS". The ship drew some kind of power from its pilots, who steered the ship with their thoughts. Humans were incompatible; the energy-drawing process invariably resulted in the candidate's death. Time Lords were too much for the system and would overload it, enough to blow up the solar system. The ship had a holographic autopilot which activated when damaged. The autopilot searched for people to power the ship, using the building's intercom to communicate with people outside and changing its appearance to lure them in. All of the holograms seemed to lure the victims by saying that they needed help. Number 79B, Aickman Road was a timeship that had crash-landed on Earth some time before 2010. The ship hid itself by pretending to be the upper story of 79 Aickman Road over a flat occupied by Craig Owens. The ship's autopilot attempted to relaunch the ship using humans as pilots, specifically selecting humans who wanted to escape or explore. However, the mind of a human was too weak to launch the ship and the people selected by the autopilot were killed. This created a pattern of decay on the ceiling below, much like rot in appearance. The autopilot's attempt to launch the ship with humans also caused a time loop to form briefly, almost resulting in the TARDIS and Amy being thrown into the Time Vortex. The Auto Pilot attempted to use the Doctor's mind to launch the ship, but the Doctor claimed that his mind would be too much for the ship. Craig Owens shut down the ship because he didn't want to escape or explore; he wanted to stay right where he was. The ship imploded when the emergency shutdown was activated by Craig. Category:Enemy Faction Category:Ancient Faction Category:Doctor Who Category:Species Category:Ancient Species Category:Doctor Who species